Local

Mike Wexler reigned over the Young Men’s Group Poker Tournament April 21. Other top finishers, in order of rank, were Peter DeLuca, Josh Silverman, Myles Levine, and Mckenzie Carlat. Fifty players raised $1,800 at the event for “Making a Difference Every Day: The Homer Davis Project.” Proceeds will provide… Read more »

The Sisterhood of Congregation Or Chadash honored Kathylynn Saboda as its first Eshet Or (Woman of Light) at a luncheon and end of year meeting on Sunday, April 14. Saboda served as Sisterhood president in 2004. She served on the congregation’s board of directors from 2005-2008; since 2008 she… Read more »

The Invisible Theatre’s Pastime Players, an award-winning, multi-disciplinary arts education program for mentally and physically challenged students, will present a free performance of “The Me Inside of Me” on Wednesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at Doolen Middle School, 2400 N. Country Club Road. Pastime Players started as a… Read more »

Edith N. Muhlrad, 95, died April 12, 2019. Mrs. Muhlrad was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 12, 1923. She was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years, Norbert F. Muhlrad; and sisters, Sara Joffe and Anne Cook. Survivors include her children, David Muhlrad and Cindi… Read more »

Southern Arizona’s five Chabad centers will hold a gathering of “Light, Solidarity & Prayer” for the Jewish community of Poway on Wednesday, May 1 at 6 p.m. at Chabad Tucson (Congregation Young Israel), 2443 E. Fourth Street. “It is with great pain and sadness that we stand in solidarity… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona are heartbroken and horrified by the senseless act of violence on Saturday at Congregation Chabad in Poway, California. This act came on the exact six-month anniversary after the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, on… Read more »

Reciprocal hospitality The Weintraub Israel Center’s Partnership2Gether Israeli and Tucson teams gathered here March 3-8 for the P2G 2019-20 annual budget meeting. Since 1996, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has participated in P2G, a Jewish Agency for Israel program connecting Jewish communities around the world.  One year the… Read more »

Bella Wexler, a sophomore at Catalina Foothills High School, has earned a scholarship from the U.S. State Department to study in Xiamen, China, this summer. She will study Mandarin in the State Department’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth, a language-immersion program. Wexler is a member of the Jewish-Latino… Read more »

Edlin Nunez

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has appointed Edlin Nunez as its new administrative services manager. A native Tucsonan, she is a graduate of Grand Canyon University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She has spent her career serving with community-based organizations, including seven years with CODAC Health, Recovery… Read more »

Phil Bregman, Leslie Glaze

The second annual combined Jewish Community Awards Celebration and Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Annual Meeting will be held Thursday, May 9 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The event will include special recognition awards honoring lay or professional leaders from each of the Federation’s beneficiary and affiliated agencies.… Read more »

Six months ago, Jesse Davis and his wife, Melissa, began keeping a kosher home. They were prompted by their two oldest daughters, pupils at Tucson Hebrew Academy, who took the school’s kosher cooking class and came home with “a million and one questions,” says Davis, a teacher at Temple… Read more »

This year’s community Yom HaShoah commemoration will mark 80 years since the outbreak of World War II by reflecting on the vibrant and diverse Jewish life that existed in Europe and North Africa before the Holocaust. “On the Eve: Jewish Life Before the Third Reich” will be held Sunday,… Read more »

A staggering 83 percent of more than 400,000 prisoners released in 2005 across 30 states were arrested at least once in the nine years following their release, according to a U. S. Department of Justice study released in 2018. Today many groups are talking about and researching justice reform.… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and its Northwest Division recently announced the expansion of its Oro Valley facility to larger premises. Due to increased participation in the many programs at the Northwest’s Ruth & Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life, this summer the center will move to 180… Read more »

Herbert Cohn, chair of the Catalina Council Jewish Committee on Scouting, is attempting to create a more inclusive environment by reminding all in the local scouting community of the intention by Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the world scouting movement, that it should embrace all faiths. Cohn has been… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s board governance committee has recommended the following slate of officers for the 2019-20 program year: Deborah Oseran, chair of the board; Jeff Artzi, vice chair; Ben Silverman, treasurer/secretary; Shelly Silverman, immediate past chair. Also nominated are Elena Boskoff, Avi Erbst and Scott Sheftel… Read more »

Anne Lowe, left, and Elizabeth L. Fox

Anne Lowe of Tucson and Elizabeth L. Fox of Boulder, Colorado, will present their recently published books at Hadassah Southern Arizona’s brunch on Sunday, May 5. In “A Touch of Torah,” Lowe shares reflections on being Jewish as she tries to grasp the intricacies of Torah. Inspired by the… Read more »

Orit Bashkin

In the 1950s, 123,000 Iraqi Jews arrived in Israel. Harsh conditions and a shared background united them. Orit Bashkin, Ph.D., a University of Chicago associate professor of modern Middle Eastern history, will highlight this era in the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies’ 2019 Jeffrey Plevan Memorial Lecture, “Israeli Babylonians:… Read more »

Tucson now has a functioning eruv, Congregation Chofetz Chayim announced April 11 via email. An eruv is a symbolic wire boundary that follows the guidelines of Jewish law for creating a demarcation of private space that allows for carrying objects on Shabbat and other Jewish holy days. The creation… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Men’s Night Out on Tuesday, April 9, drew a crowd of 130 men to the Sculpture Garden of the Tucson Jewish Community Center for a relaxed evening that included whiskey tasting, food trucks, and the presentation of the 2019 MENtor award to Gary… Read more »